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The Elephant Man | Year: 1980 Classification: Drama Actors/Actresses: - Anne Bancroft He is not an animal. The magnificent visuals in *The Elephant Man* are rather less due to director David Lynch than they are to cinematographer and Hammer vet (and former director himself) Freddie Francis. On purely visual terms, this has to be one of the greatest black One of the Best "The Elephant Man" is arguably the best of David Lynch's works while some may argue his best being "Mulholland Drive", a film which may easily lock him up as a best Director nominee for the 2002 Academy Awards. It's important for many of you to note that this is a PG movie because this movie is that important for everyone to watch. It demonstrates ignorance, prejudice, and the evils of the human race. Watching this movie is a life-changing experience and perhaps a turning point in your life. David Lynch's direction in this movie is absolutely outstanding right from the beginning to the end, strange and dreamy. Lynch has long been criticized for his film to be a dreamy imagery by the film critics. However, in this film, it works in its effect of telling the horrific cause of Merrick's looks and teaching us the main lessons of the movie. It's evident there's so much passion put in to make this movie. Bottom line, even though the movie could be disturbing at times, but it is compelling and beautifully made- in black and white. If you want to see good acting and directing, this is the one. The tyranny of normality. Although generally interpreted as David Lynch's breakthrough, the main force behind the making of 'The Elephant Man' was Mel Brookes. Brookes fought agressively for David Lynch's final cut, including the opening and closing dream sequences that Paramount wanted to drop. Lynch, whose fascination with the industrial landscape permeated his cinematic debut 'Eraserhead', must have taken a fancy to directing a movie set in smoke-staked Victorian Britain. Lynch himself likened John Merrick's facial structure to a series of uncontrollable explosions, an industrial-like catastrophe of the body (which sounds like the basis of an architypal David Cronenberg movie). Although initially cared for by men of varying degrees of affection, it is with women that John Merrick shares his strongest bond. Within the moral confines of Victorian society, he is treated as the passive spectacle that women would have been viewed as at the time. His sensitivity and feminine affectations remain intact despite the brutality society has inflicted upon him. This bond would be almost impossible to imagine if he did not receive some maternal affection as a child. Yet ironically what ultimately dooms Merrick is the tyranny of normality that prevades Victorian society. All of those well-bred, well-meaning people who try to help, raise in him a fantasy of acceptance. A 'normality' he will always be excluded from. This tyranny of normality even leads him to believe that there is a 'proper' and 'accepted' way to sleep. Such is the huge leap from the conformist coventions of a century ago, that I believe if Merrick were alive today, he would wear his difference as a badge of individuality, something that has become a convention in itself. Buy The Elephant Man at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Elephant Man Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Elephant Man This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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